How Can I Keep from Singing, Vol. 2

by HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING 2 /

Overview

As with its predecessor, How Can I Keep from Singing, Vol.2: Early American Religious Music and Song combines a mere handful of well-known performers from the golden age of American Folk Music with a number of more mysterious names. In the place of obvious choices like Rev. Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson, for example, we find Shands Superior Jubilee Singers and Ridgel's Fountain Citians. After all, both Davis and Johnson have full-length Yazoo collections devoted to their music. What How Can I Keep from Singing does so well then, is to convey the scope of religious song (on record) during the 1920s and '30s. Placing bluesman Sam Collins' gorgeous "I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart" between the sacred harp singers of "Weeping Mary" and Morris Family's "He Rose Unknown" proves how much apparently disparate musicians had in common, even if the sound of their music seemed so far apart. Even secular performers join in. Sacred music certainly wasn't prominent in the repertoire of Cliff Carlisle, but that hardly concern's Yazoo. The guitarist and his quartet give a spirited reading of the popular "Shine on Me." The sound of the Golden Jubilee Quartet on "Job" seems to predate everything from the sacred style adopted by bluegrass singers in the '40s to the rockabilly panache of the '50s. Elsewhere, Washington Philips finds comfort on "Jesus Is My Friend," Shands Superior Jubilee Singers describe appropriate attire for heaven on "Silver Slippers" and the genteel voices of the Copperhill Male Quartet sound chilling delivering the title of "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood." In bringing together these artists, Yazoo creates a religious community on How Can I Keep from Singing. Though the musicians themselves might not have recognized it as such, on record it seems very real indeed. ~ Nathan Bush

Product Details

Release Date:	06/04/1996
Label:	YAZOO
UPC:	0016351202123

Tracks

1. What Shall Our Answer Be  -  Long
2. I've Got a Home in Beulah Land  -  Brothers Wright and Williams
3. Rock of Ages  - Blind Willie Davis  -  Traditional
4. Weeping Mary  -  Roswell Sacred Harp
5. I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart  - Sam Collins
6. He Rose Unknown  -  Morris Family
7. Will My Mother Know Me There?  -  L.V. Jones & His Virginia Singing Class
8. Memphis Flu  - Elder Curry
9. Jesus Is My Friend  - Washington Phillips  -  Traditional
10. Job  -  Golden Gate Quartet  -  Traditional
11. Hallelujah to the Lamb  -  Ridgel's Fountain Citians
12. There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood  -  Copperhill Male Quartet
13. Silver Slippers  -  Shands Superior Jubilee Singers
14. Light in the Valley  - Misses T.A. Duncans  - Misses L. Reed  -  Mrs T.A. Duncans
15. Shine on Me  - Cliff Carlisle
16. Oh Death  -  Pace Jubilee Singers  - Bernice Johnson Reagon
17. Thou Carest Lord  -  Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers
18. My Loving Brother  -  McConnell
19. Take Thy Burden to the Lord  -  Seventh Day Adventists Choir  -  Traditional
20. Lonely Tomb  -  Mainer
21. Goin' to Rest Where Jesus Is  - Blind Joe Taggart
22. Lonesome Valley  - David Miller  -  Traditional
23. Prayer Meeting  -  Rev. J.F. Forest & Congregation

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Mrs T.A. Duncans   Primary Artist
Copperhill Male Quartet   Primary Artist
Ed McConnell & Family   Primary Artist
Shands Superior Jubilee Singers   Primary Artist
L.V. Jones & His Virginia Singing Class   Primary Artist
Wade Mainer & the Sons of the Mountaineers   Primary Artist
George Long & His Singers   Primary Artist
Rev. J.F. Forest & Congregation   Primary Artist
Morris Family   Primary Artist
Blind Willie Davis   Primary Artist
Seventh Day Adventists Choir   Primary Artist
David Miller   Primary Artist
Mrs. T.A. Duncans   Primary Artist
The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet   Primary Artist
Rev. J.F. Forest   Primary Artist
Golden Gate Quartet   Primary Artist
Roswell Sacred Harp Quartette   Primary Artist
Pace Jubilee Singers   Primary Artist
George Long   Primary Artist
The Morris Gospel Family   Primary Artist
Washington Phillips   Primary Artist
Ed McConnell   Primary Artist
Roswell Sacred Harp   Primary Artist
Wade Mainer   Primary Artist
Brothers Wright and Williams   Primary Artist
Mrs. L. Reed   Primary Artist
Sam Collins   Primary Artist
Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers   Primary Artist
George Washington Phillips   Primary Artist
Ridgel's Fountain Citians   Primary Artist
Elder Curry   Primary Artist
Cliff Carlisle   Primary Artist
Blind Joe Taggart   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Richard Nevins   Liner Notes,Remastering,Producer
Blind Joe Taggart   Performer
Sam Collins   Performer,Composer
George Washington Phillips   Performer
David Miller   Performer
Don Kent   Liner Notes,Producer
Brothers Wright and Williams   Performer
Traditional   Composer
Pace Jubilee Singers   Performer
Golden Gate Quartet   Performer
Blind Willie Davis   Performer
Bernice Johnson Reagon   Composer
Joan Pelosi   Art Direction
Robert Vosgien   Digital Mastering